Now, veterans of the A.U.W. have altered the concept to lay the foundations for another Asian women’s university that, by conservative estimates, is expected to open in Malaysia in 2015.

The concept of an Asian Women’s Leadership University, a private nonprofit institution, was conceived in 2010 by Barbara Hou, who had previously served as legal council and director of admissions at A.U.W. in Bangladesh.

“I learned a lot from that experience about the desire for this type of institution in the region,” Ms. Hou said of her time at the A.U.W. “And many of us realized that if we could expand the idea of a women’s liberal arts college beyond Bangladesh, and make it pan-Asian and located in a more developed but affordable country — well, we thought that’d be pretty awesome.”

Henry Lau, one of those founding members and a corporate lawyer in Tokyo, convinced his firm, Debevoise & Plimpton, to support the project on a pro bono basis. The firm was instrumental in registering the A.W.L.U. as a nonprofit organization in the United States.

“Once they signed on, we got more credibility and we got more support,” Mr. Lau said. “If there’s no organization, then it’s hard to raise money; it’s hard to conduct activities legally. You can’t even enter into contracts.”

Mr. Lau described the process of securing outside support as a “chicken and egg issue.” He added that having a prominent academic partner was needed for the project to gain recognition in Malaysia.

Smith College, one of the Seven Sisters of U.S. women’s liberal arts colleges, has signed on as an academic planning partner. Three of the A.W.L.U. founders — Ms. Hou, Hoon Eng Khoo and Mona Sinha — are graduates of Smith, and Ms. Sinha sits on its board of trustees.

“There’s a developing consensus among government, NGOs and business that women’s leadership in public life, in the professions and in business is key to the development of emerging economies,” said Carol Christ, president of Smith College, when asked about support for projects like the A.W.L.U. “Over a century of experience in the United States has demonstrated the powerful role women’s colleges play in educating women leaders.”

As Ms. Hou put it: “Anyone can check the news and see that the central challenge of our time is incorporating the full talent, effectiveness and participation of women in society. A.W.L.U. is being created to meet that challenge.”

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The A.W.L.U. has set up a graduate pathway partnership with the Graduate School of Medicine at Perdana University in Malaysia, which works in collaboration with Johns Hopkins’s medical school in the United States.

It has also identified 100 acres, or 40 hectares, of land in Penang.

There are notable differences between the existing A.U.W. in Bangladesh and the proposed A.W.L.U. in Malaysia. The former, in a country where per capita income is only about $700, runs on charitable donations and supports women from the poorest backgrounds. The latter, planned for the relatively more affluent country of Malaysia, will serve a broad swath of society.

“We wanted something like the Eighth Sister in Asia,” Mr. Lau said. “In the United States these colleges are self-sustaining. The fact is you do need tuition; you do need fee-paying students. Of course the learning environment is much improved by diversity, whether racial, ethnic, religious and socioeconomic, so we definitely need to provide assistance for people of less means. And we also are definitely very committed to a liberal arts education model.”

The board envisions that the majority of students will pay full tuition, with about one-quarter of students on full scholarship.

“A lot of the challenges in Bangladesh, in the views of many, stemmed from poor governance and the significant infrastructural challenges from being located in a place without clean water and air, adequate hospitals and medical care, road safety, reliable electricity, Internet connection, etc.,” Ms. Hou said of the A.U.W. “Earthquakes, dengue fever, building codes and fire safety were also a concern.”

“That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a university in Bangladesh, but just that if you wanted to set up one modeled on the U.S. Seven Sisters, you might have to think of other more appropriate locations,” she said.

“Location turns out to be pretty key because it impacts the types of students and faculty you will be able to attract and retain,” she added.

The A.W.L.U. board is working with the Malaysian government to iron out the specifics of the land agreement, while also waiting for a licensing decision from the Ministry of Higher Education.

It is also working to raise the $8 million in seed capital required to start a university in Malaysia. Under a conservative estimate, they expect that the A.W.L.U. will open its doors in 2015, but if fund-raising goes better than planned, they say the opening could come even sooner.